My training for sub 40 10k

Hi folks is there any experienced heads in here that can look over my training and tell me if im on the right path for a sub40 min 10K

Monday- Am slow run normally 7-8 miles Monday- Pm some weight training squats lunges etc.

Tuesday- Am hill reps the hill i use is not the steepest but its quite long i normally do 5-6 times the hill with a jog back down. Tuesday- Pm Run with my running club normally 6-7 miles.

Wed- Am slow run 10-12 miles Wed- Pm Weight training same as Monday or i rest.

Thursday-Am Swimming normally 30 to 40 mins of lengths Thursday- Pm Interval training with my running club 200,400,600,800,1000,1500 its normally 16x200 5x1500 etc.

Friday- Am rest legs are gone after the reps. Friday- Pm slow run 6-7 miles

Sat- Am Parkrun 5k Sat-Pm rest

Sunday long slow run 12-15 miles.

Please dont worry about ripping my plan apart as i want to know what im doing right or wrong any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Mark

Comments

  • couple of questions:

    what is ur current pb for a 10k

    where is your rest day??????????  image

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    As above, you need a rest day to help recovery.

    It does seem like very high mileage to get below 40 mins.

    Need some more details on PBs and experience really.
  • 50 miles a week. Impressive. But I think you might do better with two rest days in there. I'd be knackered after a week like that.
  • Hi Mark

    Have a read of this thread

    Moraghan Training - Stevie G

    The guys on there are a little bit quicker but you get a great ideas for training sessions.

    Good luck

  • Hi guys thanks for the reply my PB are the following i've only ever done 2 10k runs but they are 45mins for the first and 43mins for the second.

    I know my routine is a bit tough but im hoping some of you experienced guys can guide me in the right direction.

    Cheers maxpower i'll check it out.

  • Trixeepoo sat tend to be a rest day as i spend it with the wife other than that not that much.

  • We did Mark. You need more rest.



    Racing 5k flat out is (surprisingly) NOT a rest day.



    How long have you been running ?
  • Agree with the other try and fit a rest day in, if I were you I would take it on a saturday but do the park run once a month to test your progress and on that week knock the session on a thurs down a notch.  The other session i would reccomend is a tempo run of between 20 & 40 mins at 10mile or HM pace, as 10km needs speed endurance as well as speed, and your sessions are all about speed.

    Looking at your previous times you should crack 40 and quite soon

  • Been running for about 3+ years but i played football for about 10yrs

    I'll cut down the runs and introduce some recovery days.

    Is the sub 40 achievable though.

  • I went out tonight and ran 5.5 miles according to my garmin. This was my first run this week no am run.

    Took me 42.42mins was a slow steady run miles are.

    Mile 1 - 8.01

    Mile 2 - 8.36

    Mile 3 - 7.30

    Mile 4 - 7.26

    Mile 5 - 7.16

    Mile 6 - 7.42 this was the half mile.

    Is it wise to got out and do hill reps tomorrow morning knowing that im running tomorrow night which will be between 6/7 miles.

     

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    I don't really think you need to be running twice a day . I know everyone is different but I managed to get sub 40 on 5 runs a week. 1 long run, 1 interval or hill session, 1 tempo run and 2 easy runs. I have only been running 4 yrs witha background of rugby.
  • Cheers Millsy how far was your long run and what was you interval and hill session like.

    Also what speed/distance was your tempo run and easy run.

    Sorry for the questions just trying to get a decent stable running plan.

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Long run wise, I think I was training for a marathon at the time but could have got away with a 10-12 miler.

    Intervals at about 5k pace

    Tempo at 10k - H/M pace.

    Easy runs around 8.30 - 9 min miles.
  • How did you find racing to gain your sub 40mins Millsy. 

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Sorry I don't quite understand your question , can you elaborate a bit please.
  • Mark think you're making this way to complicated.



    4 double days and 1 days rest. Likely knackered after 2-3 weeks if this.



    I do 3 runs a week to do sub 40. With 2 days cross training. Emphasis on quality not quantity.



    Might take you 12-18 months to go from 42-43 minute 10k to sub 40.



    How old are you?
  • Hi Millsy sorry was just asking after your training when it came to race day how did you feel pace wise running sub 40.

    Fit-running-cat im 32 been running for a fair bit now but just wanting to up my running but would like to get some structure so i though it best to post on here.

    Some good feedback too.

  • McFloozeMcFlooze ✭✭✭

    Also dropping mileage for the few days before the race will probably help you massively (if you didn't do that already) as your schedule sounds quite tiring!  Amazing what a fresh pair of legs can do.image  

    What is your Parkrun PB?  

  • MillsyMillsy ✭✭✭
    Hard to say on how it felt as I do a parkrun every couple of weeks so I went out a little bit slower than that and just held on.
  • Mcflooze i haven't actually done a parkrun yet im planning on one this weekend.

  • I don't think you're doing a lot wrong. I disagree with the others re: rest days. REST is important, but that doesn't automatically have to be a rest day. I ran my 10k PB 20 years ago (time flies...) during a 16-week period during which I ran every day. You need to consider your training in the context of your whole lifestyle - family and work commitments etc.

    Something I've always been keen on - and which I think is a gap in many people's training - is race pace training. E.g a 39min 10k is 5.51 per 1500m / 3.54 per 1k / 3.07.2 per 800m / 93.6 per 400m. Does your interval work reflect that? 

  • Hi Bazza my splits are the following this was for 400m x 4

    lap 1 6.00m/m

    lap 2 6.40m/m

    lap 3 6.54m/m

    lap 4 6.30m/m

    That was Thursday past.

    What do you think i should add into my training to help me achieve this Bazza any help is really welcome.

  • Ok, well of course we’ll different and what works for person A doesn’t necessarily work for person B, and I would take any advice off the internet with a pinch of salt…

    However, I would suggest that you keep your easy runs easy and make sure your hard runs (or intervals) are hard. In particular, I think you should aim to make your intervals much more consistent - which for most people means running the first one much slower (this takes quite a bit of effort!). Not sure what recovery you are taking between efforts but I’m going to guess it’s too long! Better to slow the reps down a little and take a short recovery (preferably one during which you keep moving.)

    Sample training:

    Week 1

    Mon: Steady run

    Tue: long intervals at 10k pace

    Wed: Steady run

    Thu: shorter intervals at 5k pace

    Fri: Rest or very easy run

    Sat: Short fast run or tempo run or race

    Sun: Long slow/steady run

    Week 2 – as week 1 but swap the 5k reps for 3k pace reps

    Week 3 – as week 1

    Week 4 – as week 1 but swap the 10k pace reps for 5k efforts and swap the 5k reps for 1500m pace reps

    If you do this long enough you should find you can race pretty well over anything from 1500m up to half marathon.

    If you’re doing twice-a-day running or swimming or whatever it doesn’t really change the pattern, so that’s fine. Don’t be dogmatic about things. If you’re completely knackered, just take a day off. If you feel good, go for a run.

    Of course, your winter, spring, summer, autumn training should be a little different but that’s a whole other story…

  • So Bazza if im aiming for 39mins i should run my 10k pace as 6.5mins per mile or round about but keeping consistant right.

    and my 5k pace as half of that.

    I have about 4 weeks till my 10k race thats plenty of time surely plus i've been running for a while now.

    hanks for the help i will try it out and report back.

  • I think that you need some kind of reference point. If you line up to race, you may be capable of running X, but if your body hasn’t run at that pace enough times it won’t know what to do.

    There is a school of thought that if you intervals at faster than your target race pace, then when comes to the race the slower pace will feel easy. However, in my experience it doesn’t often work like that. If you do intervals at 36min 10k pace then starting off at 39min pace in the actual event isn’t going to feel comfortable – it is going to feel UNcomfortable.

    If you race very regularly and/or have been training and competing for many years you can get your pacing right but far too many runners (imho) get it wrong. This is particularly true of people that come into the sport later in life – if you start quite young and move up from 800m to 1500m to 5k etc you develop a good feel for the different requirements of different events

    39mins for 10k is 6.16 per mile and at least one of your interval sessions per week should be based on that.

    If you ran 4 x 1mile on a track at that pace – with possibly 200m walk between each one – the first rep would feel very easy. Just keeping the same will get increasingly difficult but if you can do that kind of session you want be far off doing it in a race. (Probably should be able to do 5x1mile at 10k pace eventually)

    Other sessions could be

    8-10 x 800m at 10k pace

    20 x 400m at 10k pace

    Again – the first few will feel very easy, but don’t go off too fast.

    Tempo runs. 20 mins easy / 20mins at 10k pace / 20 mins easy (I used to do this most Saturday mornings if I wasn’t racing – I had a good, fairly flat and straight road nearby and I would run from one particular lamppost to another which took about 10mins then I would take a short breather (10-20 seconds) and turn around then try to run the returning bit slightly quicker.)

    Hope that makes sense.

  • Btw – just to slightly contradict everything I’ve written so far…

    If I was advising someone right from the start I would probably suggest that for the first year, before even thinking about doing any speed work they just go for a run 5-6 times a week at a nice steady pace for anything between 30mins and an hour.

  • That makes perfect sence Bazza i've been running for years and deceded to give up football to keep the focus on running but like i said my running has been all of steady runs and some speed work in the gym on the treadmill.

    I went out and did hill reps the night managed 8 reps.

    Took me 7mins miles was 1.10 Hill was 300ft allinfo was in accordance with my Garmin. It was staggered incline.

    Reps were

    Lap 1 miles 0.14 time 49 seconds 5.48min mile

    Lap 2 miles 0.14 time 52 seconds 6.18min mile

    Lap 3 miles 0.14 time 49 seconds 5.51min mile

    Lap 4 miles 0.14 time 53 seconds 6.38min mile

    Lap 5 miles 0.14 time 53 seconds 6.27min mile

    Lap 6 miles 0.14 time 54 seconds 6.26min mile

    Lap 7 miles 0.14 time 52 seconds 6.38min mile

    Lap 8 miles 0.14 time 52 seconds 6.17min mile

    Are these time any good. I have a rep session on thursday with a running club 3x2000 with 2min recovery.

    I did get offered to do a tempo run tomorrow night with some guys who run 10k in 34-35 mins 10mins decent pace recover for 5 mins then turn back again and do the same.

  • Hi Mark - there are no good or bad sessions. Everything is relative and depends on context. How did it make you feel? Did you enjoy it? If you enjoyed it then anything else is a bonus.

    The thing I would say, though - where is the progression? Have you done that session before? If yes, then the important thing is how does it compare? You need to be doing them faster, or doing more of them at the same pace (or taking a shorter recovery, but that is difficult with that type of session). The other way of measuring progress is by using a heart rate monitor and if you can do the same session but with less effort then that will tell you that you are getting fitter (you probably know that already!). But with that kind of session I would suggest that the best way to make progress and help with your 10k aims is to increase the number of reps (gradually) to 12 (and possibly even 16).

    I would be tempted to forgo the tempo run - that would be three hard days in a row which is not normally a good idea and it could affect thursday's session. 3 x 2000 should be quite taxing without totally finishing you off. Try to keep the times within 5 seconds of each other - or try to get a little faster each time e.g 7.53 / 7.48 / 7.43.

  • Hi bazza i felt pretty good after it legs were burning a bit but felt i could of got in a few

    More reps.

    Yeah the 2000 reps will be hard i have about 2.5 weeks till my 10k race so I'll see what i can get in before my race. I tend to go out every Friday night with a good runner normal pace between 7:30-8:30 distance between 7-10 miles.Your input has certainly got me thinking better about my training thank you.
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